DISPOSITION OF THE PENALTIES 125 



such delay resulted in the statutory change made in the 

 disposition of the penalties.^ Two sets of collectors for 

 Northampton had fa led to account for the penalties, in one 

 case, on the plea of " no estreats," and in the other, with 

 no excuse for the omission; but Henry Grene, the justice of 

 labourers, appears in court with the duplicates, and says 

 that all the collectors had lied. The process dragged on 

 until most of the collectors had died, and their heirs and 

 executors, several of them women, were finally distrained to 

 appear to answer for the penalties, their property having 

 been seized by the sheriff. Finally, in H'lary term of the 

 36th year they come into court and seek delay on the ex- 

 cuse that memoranda et miinimenta sua prcmissa tangencia 

 sunt in partibits suis sine quibus in premissis respondere non 

 possmit et petiint diem vlterius etc. vt interim munimento. 

 ilia pcrscrutari possint. Not until Michaelmas of the same 

 year did they appear w'th a writ of supersedeas issued by 

 the king on 26 November, on the ground of the new statute 

 passed in the parliament that had just sat, giving arrears 

 of penalties to the communities and compelling collectors to 

 account to the keepers of the peace instead of at the ex- 

 chequer." A petition to the council printed in the parlia- 

 ment rolls seems to indicate that during these six months 

 the defendants had done something more than examine their 



'Mem. L. T. R., 31, Hill., Recorda, rot. 5, Norht'; " De collector- 

 ibus xv"' et x'' triennalium attachiatis pro compoto et concelamento." 



'^Statutes, 36 Edw. III. st. i, c. 14. The session of parliament re- 

 sponsible for this measure lasted 13 Oct. to 17 Nov.; Parry, Parlia- 

 ments, Ivi. The statute embodies almost the exact words of a petition: 

 " Item, Pur ce que I'entent des Seignurs et de la Commune est declaree 

 en cest present Parlement, Qe les Communaltez de chescunes Villes 

 du Roialme eient les Fins & Amercimentz, & touz autres Profitz, des 

 Artificers, Servantz et autres Laborers, queconques fuissent paiez as 



Coillours de la Quinzisme triennale, autrefoitz grante au Roi " 



Rot. Pari., ii, 273a. 



